Riding The Disintegrating Empire To Oblivion
Must Read - A quote...."The Right Wing is doing exactly to the U.S. what they've been doing to Third World Nations for decades. American corporations scream Marxist when their interests are threatened in the Third World. Republicans bandy the word socialism about anytime democrats try to toss a few dollars into programs that help the fast disappearing middle class. Republicans use the "L" word against democrats to equate them with tax and spend, commies, socialists and baby killers. The enemy must be villainized to be beaten. -- When the CIA is sent in to foster revolution it's always because the leader of some Third World nation won't play ball. The revenue from such nation's sovereign resources must be controlled by U.S. corporations. What if some pip squeak nation decided to plow all that money into its economy by investing in infrastructure? The stuff of Right Wing nightmares. What if the public good were served?"

One of History's Greatest Crimes
Must Read - A quote...."America's hidden history is ugly and disturbing. No nation ever matched it. To Iraq alone, over the past two decades, it includes ongoing genocide, destruction, terror, occupation, and contamination - a horrendous combination of crimes, unmentioned in Western discourse. -- Environmental Engineering Professor Souad N. Al-Azzawi documents them, including in her report titled, "Crime of the Century: Iraq's Occupation and DU Contamination," a detailed account of US culpability. -- America's strategic aims, she explains, include...."

• controlling most of the world's oil and other natural resources;
• remaining permanently in the Middle East, "the intersection zone of the three continents where 80% of the world('s) population" lives; and
• if the above two objectives are achieved, America will control the world's economy, or enough of it to matter.

"Spread over a large enough area, depleted uranium (DU) is a weapon of mass destruction, because it's radioactive and chemically toxic. If ingested or inhaled through food, air, water or other means, it enters the human body, remaining for decades." - also posted at OpEdNews - For more on this type of issue see....The Method - 05-07-07 - mpg

A Jewish state or an Israeli democracy? - link posted at ICH
Must Read - A quote...."Benjamin Netanyahu is unsure of his identity: His insecurity is behind his pointless demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as uniquely Jewish. -- A Jewish state or an Israeli democracy? In the talks that appear to be taking place between Israel and the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked his negotiating partner to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. One can understand the prime minister: A man so little observant of the Jewish religious tradition is unsure of his Jewish identity, hence his insecurity about the identity of his state - and the need to seek validation from our neighbors. -- There's far too little criticism in Israel of this latest whim, which until recently was absent from Israeli diplomacy."

President Obama’s Ahistorical World - posted at ICH
Must Read - A quote...."September 25, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- On  September 23, 2010 it was President Obama’s turn to take the podium at the United Nations. There was a world of problems for him to draw on but, not unexpectedly, he chose to concentrate on the Middle East. Thus, as has been the case with almost every President since John Kennedy, Mr. Obama is also trying his hand at cutting the Gordian Knot and drinking the sea dry. That is he is trying his hand at making peace between Israel and Palestine. Will he succeed where all others have failed? Not likely, and his speech at the UN points to one reason why. His approach is ahistorical and, at least publically, ignores the context from which all this strife has emerged."

SEPTEMBER 11: Towards a UN Inquiry Commission
Must Read - A quote...."On September 11, 2001 the world watched helplessly as the attacks that plunged the United States into mourning took place. Against all logic, the Bush Administration attributed them to an Islamist plot hatched by a group of fanatics inside a cave in Afghanistan. This accusation was exploited to justify a war against terrorism that was to start in Afghanistan and Iraq and extend, according to President Bush, to 60 countries."

9/11 - No Fires in the Gaping Hole
Contains Video - Alt - (YuTb -  8min 19sec - August 04, 2010) -- A quote...."The thick, dense, billowing black smoke shows oxygen starved fires dying out and no fire in the gaping hole, where victims appeared awaiting the rescues that never came, but after being detonated with explosives, the tower implodes in on itself and suddenly falls to the ground instantly at free fall with no impediments whatsoever, the innocent victims in the tower and below on the streets of New York City never suspecting that the three towers (1, 2, and 7) would be brought down by three classic, very visible, controlled demolitions without any official warning, all on the same day.."9-11 WTC Attacks Original Sound-Steve Vigilante"..high quality HD video with original sound track"

The Truth About Terrorism – James Corbett
JCVideo - Alt - (JCYuTb - 7min 33sec - September 23, 2010) - Source:  911Infowarrior -- A quote...."Thanks to Seattle4Truth for bringing this to my attention. Articulately expressed truth is a powerful thing."

Centrist Central: How Stewart and Colbert are Selling the Neocon Agenda to the Left
A quote...."I just have to ask, is there anything, anything, that billionare Sumner Redstone’s progressive propaganda tag-team of Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert won’t do to help turn the supposed left 180 degrees from positions they held during the previous administration? -- I have written several times about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert turning into blatant propagandists since the Chosen One took office." - also posted at AlethoNews

[Britain's] Clegg now singing off Zionist hymn-sheet
A quote...."In the space of a few short years Nick Clegg has shot from obscurity to stardom in British politics, joining Conservative leader David "I’m-a-Zionist" Cameron at the head of Britain’s new coalition government."

Ahmadinejad Renews Call for UN Inquiry into 9/11 Attacks
A quote..."TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who arrived home on Saturday after participating in the 65th UN General Assembly meeting in New York, renewed his call for the formation of an independent fact-finding committee by the UN to launch an inquiry into the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001."

Even your best friends won’t tell you - posted at OnlineJournal
A quote...."As I remember, “Even your best friends won’t tell you” has been a phrase for everything from bad breath to dandruff sufferers to those suffering from body odors. The phrase was ideal shame-making for manufacturers of mouthwashes, dandruff shampoos, deodorants and antiperspirants. And now it applies to our purported worst enemy, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. That is, he’s telling us what none of our “best friends” in our government are saying, “that the American government may have been behind the 9/11 attack.”

PressTV – Americans seek probe into 9/11
Video - Alt - (Sat Sep 25, 2010 10:51AM) -- A quote...."“Ahmadinejad is absolutely rational and correct on this, that the American people are now coming to the point of demanding an international inquiry (into the 9/11 attacks), ” Franklin Lamb told Press TV. [Listen to Franklin Lamb's radio interview with Kevin Barrett of Muslims for 9/11 Truth.) -- The Beirut-based lawyer was referring to remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his address to the 65th UN General Assembly that the 9/11 incident might have been the result of an inside job in the United States. -- "This call [for an international investigation] didn’t start in the Middle East. It stated more than a year ago in Canada, in Europe, in Latin America, and increasingly in America itself,” he continued."

Obama argues his assassination program is a "state secret" - Article also posted at ICH
Special Note - Quote of the Day...."At this point, I didn't believe it was possible, but the Obama administration has just reached an all-new low in its abysmal civil liberties record.  In response to the lawsuit filed by Anwar Awlaki's father  asking a court to enjoin the President from assassinating his son, a U.S. citizen, without any due process, the administration late last night, according to The Washington Post, filed a brief  asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit without hearing the merits of the claims.  That's not surprising:  both the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly insisted that their secret conduct is legal but nonetheless urge courts not to even rule on its legality.  But what's most notable here is that one of the arguments the Obama DOJ raises to demand dismissal of this lawsuit is "state secrets":  in other words, not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are "state secrets," and thus no court may adjudicate their legality." - also posted at CommonDreams

Pentagon Destroys Copies of Controversial Memoir Written by Army Officer - And the cover-up continues.
A quote...."The Defense Intelligence Agency has blocked a book about the tipping point in Afghanistan and a controversial pre-9/11 data mining project called "Able Danger." -- The Pentagon has burned 9.500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's memoir "Operation Dark Heart," his book about going undercover in Afghanistan. -- A Department of Defense officials tells Fox News that the department purchased copies of the first printing because they contained information which could cause damage to national security. -- The U.S. Army originally cleared the book for release." - bold by website editor
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9/11 - From The History File...Able Danger - sourcewatch

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Britain’s Fourth Afghan War, Through the Lens of Three Others
Second Quote of the Day...."Against the background of a faded, 19th-century military map of Afghanistan, it displays the words of Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar, V.C., who commanded the British field force in the Second Afghan War, from 1879 to 1880, one of three imperial wars in Afghanistan that cost Britain heavily in blood, treasure and prestige, and which have stood ever since as a warning against military involvement there.  --  “I feel sure I am right when I say that the less the Afghans see of us, the less they will dislike us,” the field marshal said, in a citation dated by the poster as having been made in 1880."

More Than 70 ["]Taliban["], Civilians Killed in 2 Airstrikes
A quote...."At least 70 people and possibly many more were killed today in a pair of major NATO air strikes against what NATO are calling “insurgent” targets. Locals launched public protests in the wake of the attacks to complain over civilian deaths in the strikes."

Call for 'Gaza style' inquiry on Afghan deaths
A quote...."A United Nations investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan  should be launched to identify and prosecute individuals responsible, says a former top-ranking UN official on extrajudicial killings. -- Philip Alston called for the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the "conduct of the war" in Afghanistan amid rising concern over the level of civilian casualties caused by coalition forces, including Britain, and by the Taliban. It should be modelled, he said, on the inquiry into Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip."

The American Way: Spreading Democracy to Afghanistan, One Journalist’s Arrest at a Time
US-NRE Press Intimidation - A quote...."US-led forces in Afghanistan sure did a bang-up job this week at promoting the concept of Western "democracy." -- The so-called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the puppet intelligence agency of the Afghan government, between them, arrested and held three journalists, Rahmatullah Nekzad, a freelance reporter for Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, Mohammed Nader, a staff correspondent and cameraman for Al Jazeera, and Hojatullah Mojadadi, an Afghan local radio station manager, and held them all without charge for the "crime" of allegedly having developed contacts with the Taliban. Nekzada and Nader were held for three days. Mojadadi was held by Afghan authorities for six days. -- The three were ultimately released following international pressure and following demands for the release of the two NATO-held journalists made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai." - bold by website editor

Afghan election descends into war of numbers
A quote...."KABUL (AFP) – A week after Afghanistan's parliamentary poll, election officials are under intense pressure over the credibility of the vote as figures show polling day was much more violent than last year's presidential election."

Driver killed as militants attack Nato tankers in Kalat
A quote...."Attackers set on fire two supply tankers carrying fuel for Nato forces deployed in Afghanistan as the convoy passed through Mangochir area of Kalat in central Balochistan. -- The attack was carried out through bouts of firing from the militants, which resulted in the death one of the truck drivers, DawnNews reported."
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Three Iraqi officers killed with silencer guns in Baghdad
A quote...."BAGHDAD, Sept 26 (KUNA) -- Unknown gunmen assassinated on Sunday evening three senior Iraqi security officers in seperate attacks using weapons fitted with silencers in Karkh, in Baghdad. -- A police source told KUNA that the gunmen opened fired using weapons with silencers against Colonel Sadeq Abdul Azim Al-Hilo, director of police emergency battalions at Maysan province, while he was leaving a hotel near the National Theatre in Al-Karrada district, killing him on the spot. -- The source added that police at Al-Karrada arrested two suspects that killed Al-Hilo during his visit to Baghdad for a special training." -- Looks like the CIA's al-Qaeda division has been busy. - For more on that issue see the three articles shown below....

Did Blackwater sneak silencers into Iraq?
New Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers and Dog Food
Blackwater Sneaks Silencers Into Iraq

Iraq's Awakening stripped of their police ranks
A quote...."BAGHDAD - Hundreds of police officers, formerly members of an American-backed Sunni paramilitary force, will be stripped of their ranks in the Sunni Arab province of Anbar, tribal leaders and Anbar police said Sunday."

After the Journey -- A U.N. Man's Open Letter to Tony Blair
Special Note - A quote...."By Hans von Sponeck — UN humanitarian co-ordinator from 1998-2000, demands answers from the former prime minister to a simple question: Why is Iraq in such a mess?"
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Deja Vu - CIA'S New Secret Army
Special Note - A quote...."Revelations the US Central Intelligence Agency is operating a secret, 3,000-man Afghan mercenary force whose mission is assassinating Taliban and al-Qaida fighters has caused a major stir in the United States. -- This dramatic report comes in an authoritative new book, “Obama’s Wars,” by investigative reporter of Watergate fame, Bob Woodward. He has long enjoyed privileged access to the White House. --  The US armed, paid and directed hunter-killer force was set up to operate inside Pakistan, where US troops are officially not allowed to go. The mercenaries are mostly Afghan Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazara – all traditional enemies of the majority Pashtun – as well as renegades, common criminals, and mercenaries. --  Their raids into Afghanistan’s tribal territory are sometimes coordinated with CIA’s intensifying drone attacks on Pakistani tribesmen that are causing heavy civilian casualties. --  CIA also runs its own secret militias in southern Afghanistan and, reportedly, in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan." - bold/underline by website editor - For more on this sort of issue see....It Will Happen Every Single - See also....US Support of Terror

US Helicopters Attack Pakistan, Killing Over 34 -- NATO Confirms Apache Helicopters Launched Attacks Against Pakistani Territory - BREAKING - September 26, 2010 -- A quote...."NATO spokesmen are confirming tonight that a pair of US Apache helicopters crossed the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan, launching an attack against tribesmen in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) which killed at least 34 people, with higher tolls expected."

Assassination of Pakistani political figure in London linked to CIA, Mossad, and RAW
A quote...."WMR - The subsequent blaming of Farooq’s stabbing death on the Pakistani Taliban has been linked to a global media disinformation network that includes such media outlets at Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News, CNN, IBN-CNN of India, NBC, Pakistan’s GEO-TV, India’s Aaj Tak TV, and the Voice of America (VOA) whose “news” operations are being coordinated by the State Department. -- The disinformation operation, which sees independent news blogs as “national security threats,” has also been linked to the American Jewish Committee and the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, led by Cass Sunstein, a proponent of draconian Internet controls."
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'Iran to join China, Europe by rail'
A quote...."Iran's first Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi says the nation's railway network will soon be connected to that of Turkey, China and Europe." - also posted at WarInIraq

Lockerbie, Hariri Case and the Perversion of the International Justice
A quote...."The sentence was not a surprise for many experts, who denounced the injustice of this verdict. Robert Black, a law professor of the University of Edinburgh, said that “no reasonable tribunal could have convicted Megrahi on the evidence led,” and called his conviction “an absolute and utter outrage.” Hans Köchler, a UN-appointed observer at the trial, stated that “there is not one single piece of material evidence linking the two accused to the crime,” and condemned the court’s verdict as a “spectacular miscarriage of justice.” In fact, the verdict was issued although there was no evidence to support the accusation that Megrahi had put a suitcase with the lethal bomb in an Air Malta plane in Malta, so it would eventually be transferred to Flight 103 in London." - also posted at AlethoNews

Russian president begins official visit to China
A quote...."Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived on Sunday to the city of Dalian, beginning his official visit to China."

RusAl seeks stake in China's NORINCO sales subsidiary
A quote...."RusAl, the world's largest aluminum producer, has signed a letter of intent to buy a stake in the sales and marketing subsidiary of China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO), which operates on the Chinese primary aluminum market, RusAl said on Monday."

For first time in almost a century, Russian train arrives in Nice
A quote...."A train from Moscow, first since 1914, arrived in the French resort city of Nice on Saturday evening, covering the distance of 3,177 kilometers (1,974 miles) in about 52 hours."

French Jews Support Gypsy Expulsion
A quote...."French President Sarkozy's expulsion of French gypsies has been compared to Nazi wartime deportation of Jews. But French Jewish organizations support the move."

Chavez likely to retain control of Venezuela parliament
A quote...."Chavez is hailed by supporters as a champion of Venezuela’s many poor, but denounced by critics as a boorish dictator. His popularity is in the 40 percent to 50 percent range – well below his highs of previous years but probably enough to ensure his ruling Socialist Party retains a majority. “The opposition are very confident this time but they do not understand how the people feel,” said Carlos Cristiani, 44, wearing a Chavez T-shirt and selling newspapers in Sebucan, one of the most affluent neighbourhoods of the capital Caracas."

Venezuela's ruling party wins majority in legislative election
BREAKING - 2010-09-27 15:18:40 -- A quote...."CARACAS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's Hugo Chavez's Socialist Party won a majority in the 165-seat parliament, electoral officials said on Monday. -- With most votes counted, the Socialist Party won at least 90 of the 165 seats and the opposition won at least 59, said National Electoral Council (CNE) President Tibisay Lucena."
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Billionaires give 91 percent of funds for Rove-tied group
A quote...."New FEC filings show that American Crossroads, the Karl Rove-backed group that is pouring money into attack ads targeting Democrats around the country, continues to be funded virtually entirely by billionaires. -- In August, American Crossroads raised $2,639,052. Fully $2.4 million of that -- or 91 percent -- came in the form of gifts from just three billionaires." - bold by website editor

"Don't F*** With Our Activists" -- Mobilizing Against FBI Raids - posted at ICH
Video Action Alert - Alt - (YuTb - 24min 39sec - September 24, 2010) - Source:  UpTakeVideo -- A quote...."The many faceted local peace community rallied quickly to protest and to act against the FBI search and seizure of 6 homes of peace activists and a local peace office. -- Computers, cell phones, files and records, passports were among items swept up in the early morning raid. This action came a few days after the FBI's Inspector General criticized the FBI for lying to Justice Department about raids and surveillance of peace groups after 9/11."

FBI raids on antiwar activists: A frontal assault on democratic rights
Related Article - A quote...."Workers, youth and students who oppose the war policies of the Obama administration and all those who uphold democratic rights must defend the antiwar and pro-Palestinian activists whose homes were raided Friday morning by the FBI. These raids are an ominous warning that the US government, unable to convince the American people to support the imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a predatory foreign policy around the world, is moving to criminalize open political opposition."

More Americans Losing Their Liberties Every Day
Related Article - A quote...."You might give the FBI the benefit of the doubt that it had some incriminating evidence when it raided the homes of eight antiwar activists in Minneapolis and Chicago September 24th except for the fact that its past record in such cases is stinko."

Inspector General Criticism Doesn't Faze FBI Raids on Midwestern Anti-war Activists
Related Article - A quote...."The war on dissent, rather than terrorism, continued full steam with FBI SWAT teams breaking down doors  at 7 am Friday (Sept 24) morning and raiding the homes of several anti-war leaders and activists in Minneapolis, Chicago and possibly a couple other Midwest cities. Members of the FBI's "Joint Terrorism Task Force" spent a few hours at each Minneapolis residence, seizing personal photographs and papers, computers and cell phones as well as serving Federal Grand Jury subpoenas on the various activists. -- Obviously the scathing review of post 9-11 FBI "terrorism investigations" targeting various peace and social justice groups completed by the Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) and just issued four days ago gave no pause to the FBI to reflect before continuing to do more of the same." - bold by website editor - Source:  HuffPost - Stupid is as stupid does, or so they say. - mpg

States Secrets and a Policital Question: The Anwar Al-Aulaqi Story
A quote...."Yesterday, Barack Obama stepped out from the shadows of his criminal predecessor to take the lead in the ongoing war on his fellow American’s civil liberties, while the FBI stormed the homes of political dissidents and leftists. -- Late last night, according to the Washington Post, Barack Obama’s administration filed a very disturbing motion in the case brought against them by Anwar Al-Aulaqi’s father. Anwar Al-Aulaqi is a U.S. citizen who Barack Obama has decided he has the right to kill without a trial or even having indicted him before a grand jury, for that matter. Anwar’s father has filed a suit for a preliminary injunction in the District Court of DC - PDF to basically take the bounty off his son’s head before the CIA can kill him. What father wouldn’t? "

U.S. should be able to shut Internet, former CIA chief says
Police State Alert - Article - A quote...."U.S. military has new Cyber Command to begin operations 1 October 26 Sep 2010 Cyberterrorism is such a threat that the U.S. president should have the authority to shut down the Internet in the event of an attack, Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said. Hayden made the comments during a visit to San Antonio where he was meeting with military and civilian officials to discuss cyber security. Hayden said the president currently does not have the authority to shut down the Internet in an emergency. [Yes, 'emergencies' such as exposing and resisting inevitable false flags, phony pandemics, and inside terror jobs.]"

CIA seeks to gag critics of terror hit list
A quote...."Article -- A quote...."27 Sep 2010 -- The Obama Administration is trying to use national security laws to pre-empt an embarrassing court case over its targeted assassinations of terror suspects. In papers filed over the weekend Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, argued that American security would be breached if the lawsuit was heard in court. "This case cannot be litigated without risking or requiring the disclosure of classified and privileged intelligence information that must not be disclosed," he wrote."
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

UN: Two men killed on ‘Mavi Marmara’ were holding cameras when they were shot
More on the recent UN report. - mpg - A quote...."We've failed to post anything on the United Nations Human Rights Council's report issued three days ago on the Israeli raid on the Gaza flotilla last May that found that Israel had committed grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law. But big deal we're late--the mainstream media have largely ignored the report."

AP photojournalist detained at Beit Ummar rally
Israeli Press Intimidation - A quote...."HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces assaulted and detained Associated Press photojournalist Nasser Shiyouki on Saturday as he covered the weekly anti-wall protest in Beit Ummar near Hebron, witnesses said." - also posted at AlethoNews

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: French human rights activist arrested at West Bank protest
A quote...."French activist Bruno de Ginestet-Puivert, 21, was arrested by Israeli authorities on Saturday 25 September demonstrating alongside Palestinians in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar, near Hebron. He is believed to be charged with assaulting an officer, though witnesses say this allegation is completely baseless."

Israeli Secret Police Locking Up Arab Political Activists Without Evidence of Crime
A quote...."September 24, 2010 | A vague security offence of “contact with a foreign agent” is being used by Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, to lock up Arab political activists in Israel without evidence that a crime has been committed, human rights lawyers alleged this week."

At Least Four, Including Internationals, Wounded In Hebron
A quote...."Israeli soldiers attacked on Saturday a nonviolent protest in Beit Ummar town, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and wounded at least four persons, including two international peace activists."

Following The Killing of Jerusalem Infant, Clashes Renew Leading To Dozens Of Injuries
A quote...."After an infant from Al Esawiyya in East Jerusalem died due to teargas inhalation on Friday, clashes were reported Saturday evening between dozens of residents and Israeli soldiers leading to dozens of injuries among the residents." - also posted at Uruknet

Clashes continue for a fourth day: two more Palestinians hospitalised
A quote...."The clashes between Palestinian residents and the Israeli military continue to intensify for their fourth day in a row."

25 refugees arrested in raid against central Baghdad Palestinian community
A quote...."RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The Palestinian-Iraqi League said forces from the Iraqi interior ministry known as the “commandos” arrested several Palestinian refugees in one of the largest Palestinian communities in the country." - also posted at Uruknet
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On the edge with Max Keiser-Max Keiser speaking to Jim Willie-07-30-2010 (Part1) & (Part 2)
MKView Video - From the History File - July 31st, 2010 - AltPrt1 - AltPrt2 - (MK&PRTVYuTb - 12min - 07/31/10) - Source:  PressTVGlobalNews - Producer:  Max Keiser TV  - Considering what's been happening to the gold and bond markets for the last two months, this video was reposted for your viewing pleasure. - Max Keiser talks to Jim Willie who's website is called Golden Jackass dot Com and who's also editor of the "HatTrickLetter".

Central Banks No Longer Selling Gold (Duh Factor: 10/10)
Possible Related Article? - A quote...."Something funny (and quite revolutionary) happened during the CBGA's (Central Bank Gold Agreement) year ending this Sunday - the group of 15 signatory banks sold a mere 6.2 tonnes of gold, a massive 96% decline from the year earlier, according to provisional data.This means that unlike in the past, when it was central banker prerogative #1 to sell some gold and every year just to keep all the longs on their toes, this year the trend has finally changed."

SEC Denies China's Dagong of Market Entry After U.S. Debt Downgrade
A quote...."The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday denied the application by China's largest credit rating firm--Dagone Global Credit Rating Co.--to become a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) in the U.S." - Is the SEC getting petty, or are they afraid of something Dagone might say? - mpg

Endless Horror Show – Charlie McGrath
CVVideo - Alt - (CVYuTb -  5min 50sec - September 22, 2010) - Source:  crabbydogtrix - Regarding the number of people on federal poverty programs, Walmart, and the upcoming elections. - mpg

Why QE2 + QE Lite Mean The Fed Will Purchase Almost $3 Trillion In Treasurys And Set The Stage For The Monetary Endgame - Special Note - Chart - (click to enlarge) - A quote...."Recently the debate over when QE2 will occur has taken a back seat over the question of what the implications of the Fed's latest intervention in monetary policy will be, as it is now certain that Bernanke will attempt a fresh round of monetary stimulus to prevent the recent deceleration in the economy from transforming into outright deflation. Whether or not the Fed will decide to engage in QE2 on its November 3 meeting, or as others have suggested December 14, and maybe even as far out as January 25, the actual event is now a certainty. And while many have discussed this topic in big picture terms, most notably David Tepper, who on Friday stated that no matter what, stocks will benefit from QE2, few if any have actually considered what the impact of QE2 will be on the Fed's balance sheet, and how the change in composition in Fed assets will impact all marketable asset classes."

Further Confirmation On The Irrelevance Of Stock Markets
Mrkt Tech Note - Chart - A quote...."Last week we pointed out that Jefferies group, one of the last few remaining non-BHC broker-dealers, has just experienced its single most disastrous drop in trading volumes, as its principal trading revenues plunged by 80% QoQ. This is merely confirmation of what we have been warning ever since we started highlighting the series of 20 consecutive outflows from domestic equity funds: banks will soon be forced to lay off thousands of people as the primary revenue driver for the bulk of Wall Street firms - stock volumes - is now gone." -- For more on this sort of issue see....The Economy Will Not Recover Until Trust is Restored

Wealth inequality rivals the months prior to the Great Depression
Special Note - A quote...."The official announcement that the recession is over underscores the massive disconnect between Wall Street and the rest of America.  Wealth inequality in America is at levels last seen right before the Great Depression ravaged our economy.  Yet the inequality has grown even more intense as this crisis has gone forward.  43 million Americans are now classified as being in poverty.  This trend hasn’t shifted in the last decade, recession or no recession.  The system is absolutely flawed and that is why we have over 16 percent underemployment, 41 million Americans on food stamps, 4 out of 10 workers in low paying service sector jobs, the median household income falling under $50,000, record monthly foreclosure filings, and yet the recession is over according to a small group of economists.  The recession may be over for Wall Street but the rest of America is still struggling." - also posted at BLN

19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind
A quote...."The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe.  All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing.  It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution.  It was America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes.  It was the great American manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II.  But now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America."

Two U.S. Banks Fail, 2010 Total Now 127 - link posted at ICH
A quote...."WASHINGTON (TheStreet) -- State regulators closed two banks Friday, bringing the total number of U.S. bank failures for 2010 to 127. -- Both failed banks were previously included in TheStreet's Bank Watch List of undercapitalized institutions, based on second-quarter regulatory data provided by SNL Financial."

US jobless claims, housing data show no recovery for workers
A quote...."Data from the jobs and housing sectors released this week indicate that, far from “recovery,” the US remains mired in a social crisis with no end in sight."

The Cost of Health Insurance Grow Rapidly in U.S
For all those idiots out there who supported "Obama's Care Not / Insurance Bail-Out Bill", this website editor hopes your premiums triple. - mpg -- A quote...."All over America, health care insurance premiums are absolutely soaring.  Whether it is as a result of Obamacare or not, health insurers have decided that this is the seasons to raise rates. "

European economy falters as divisions mount
A quote...."Recent figures from leading economic institutes point to a pronounced decline in economic activity in the 16 European countries which constitute the euro zone. -- A key indicator of economic development, the purchasing managers index (pmi), covering manufacturing and service sectors in the euro zone, fell from 56.2 in August to 53.8 in September—its lowest rate since February."


No posts. - mpg

Friday September 24th 2010

Maybe Muslims Did It? - posted at ICH
Must Read - Contains Video - Alt - September 24, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- When President Ahmadinejad announced, before the United Nations that most people in the world believe that the U.S. government was involved in the planning and execution of the 9/11 attacks, he told the truth.  In America, groups have been popping up for years, not “fringe” types, but military and professional organizations, architects, engineers, pilots, intelligence officers. -- There is a vast underground that is never reported, never spoken of in the news and continually threatened.  The FBI and Homeland Security have infiltrated these groups,  illegal surveillance has been on a massive scale and, as the groups have grown and their reach has touched millions of Americans, the government, in the usual whispers, is talking about mass arrests, “unplugging” the internet, all those things the militia movements of the 90′s said would happen." - Source:  VeteransToday -- For more on 9/11 see....Reficultnias's 9/11 Central

Did 9/11 Really "Change Everything"?
Must Read - A quote...."We've been told that 9/11 changed everything.  --  Is it true?  --  Let's look:

• The Afghanistan war was planned before 9/11 (see this and this)
• The decision to launch the Iraq war was made before 9/11. Indeed, former CIA director George Tenet said that the White House wanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11, and inserted "crap" in its justifications for invading Iraq. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill - who sat on the National Security Council - also says that Bush planned the Iraq war before9/11. And top British officials say that the U.S. discussed Iraq regime change one month after Bush took office
• Cheney apparently even made Iraqi's oil fields a national security priority before 9/11
• The Patriot Act was planned before 9/11
• Cheney dreamed of giving the White House the powers of a monarch long before 9/11....and much more.
  

For more on this issue see....9/11 PlngGuide - SpecTrgts

Establishment Reacts To Ahmadinejad 9/11 Controversy Like Kid Caught With Hand In Cookie Jar
Must Read - A quote...."The reaction of establishment politicians and their corporate media mouthpieces to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments about 9/11 is akin to that of a guilty child caught with his hand in the cookie jar and chocolate smeared all over his face. -- The move to inflate the situation by creating a media circus will ultimately backfire as more people discover that, unfortunately, the Iranian President's comments, although cloaked in an ever present anti-Israel sentiment, are accurate." - For more on this issue see....Acting Guilty - 12-01-09 - mpg -- See also....Reficultnias's 9/11 Central
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Is Gideon Levy the most hated man in Israel or just the most heroic?
Must Read - Quote of the Day...."Gideon Levy is the most hated man in Israel – and perhaps the most heroic. This “good Tel Aviv boy” – a sober, serious child of the Jewish state – has been shot at repeatedly by the Israeli Defence Force, been threatened with being “beaten to a pulp” on the country’s streets, and faced demands from government ministers that he be tightly monitored as “a security risk.” This is because he has done something very simple, and something that almost no other Israeli has done. Nearly every week for three decades, he has travelled to the Occupied Territories and described what he sees, plainly and without propaganda. “My modest mission,” he says, “is to prevent a situation in which many Israelis will be able to say, ‘We didn’t know.’” And for that, many people want him silenced."

Tea Party is Just a Media Spectacle
Video - Alt - (RTYuTb - 6 min 16 sec - September 22, 2010) - Source:  TheAlyonaShow - Producer:  RussiaToday -- A quote...."(RussiaToday) – “The Tea Party is a media spectacle to make working people believe they have power,” Joe Bageant (author of "Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir", [Borders, A&R, QBD, Amzn.uk,
, Rdngs]) said during an interview on RT, a global television network based in Moscow, Russia." - also posted at ICH

The Zionist Billionaires Who Control Political Discourse
Related Article - A quote...."The Sept 20 issue of The New Yorker contains a profile of David and Charles Koch, "The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama." -- According to the article by Jane Mayer,  the Koch's bankroll a plethora of Libertarian and "right-wing" lobbies, think tanks and foundations, which in turn fund and direct the "grass roots" Tea Party movement. -- "The anti-government fervor infusing the 2010 elections represents a political triumph for the Kochs," she writes. "By giving money to "educate," fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement." -- Mayer neglects to mention that the Koch's are Jews or crypto Jews; instead she tries to give them a "goy gloss."

Editor's Note:  this website editor is not "anti-Jewish", but it must also be said that this particular item came as a highly disappointing surprise.

The Jewish community in the United States consists of roughly 2% to 3% of its total population, and to be quite frank, it is becoming extremely tiresome and utterly tedious to repeatedly find Jewish money power, (Bernanke, Larry Summers, Goldman Sachs, the Fed, many of the Banksters, much of K-Street, et al), Jewish political power (AIPAC, Israel et al), Jewish media power (FOX "news", New York Times, S.I.T.E. Intell, et al), Jewish intellectual power (PNAC, a Clean Break, et al), behind almost every single major economic, political, and military decision made in this country during the last thirty years.

Most of them not only disastrous or even catastrophic for the people of this nation, but also highly profitable or geo-politically advantageous for many members (not all!!) of the "Jewish Community", either here or in Israel. To be honest, this endless parade of Jewish involvement in these decisions and policies is becoming increasingly annoying.

It would be an actual relief, a distinct pleasure in fact, if the next evil plan like PNAC, or evil media campaign for war, or another nefarious take over of the political establishment is attempted by a group composed of those other than members of the "Jewish Community".  - mpg

For more on the two articles shown above see....The Tea Party - Another False Front
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The Ballad Of The Fleas - posted at ICH
Must Read - By John Walker Lindh - September 24, 2010 "Information Clearing House"

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Interview with family devastated by US drone attack
Interview - A quote...."EXCLUSIVE - Cageprisoners interview with Haider whose brother-in-law Mohammed Asghar and his friends became the victims of an unlawful US drone attack."

Massive anti-US rallies held in Pakistan - link posted at ICH
A quote...."Thousands of people have held anti-US demonstrations across Pakistan to protest an American court's verdict against a female Pakistani scientist."

Pakistan will fight Aafia Siddiqui's sentencing in US - link posted at ICH
Related Article - A quote...."Pakistan's prime minister announced Friday that he will work for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman convicted of attempted murder by the US and believed to have ties to Al Qaeda."

Aafia does not need your sympathy or your tears - link posted at ICH
Related Article - A quote...." When Judge Richard Berman delivered his verdict it came as no surprise - had he the ability to put this brilliant neuro scientist on Death Row he would have do[ne] so. --  You see Dr Aafia Siddiqui's very existence is a constant reminder of all that is wrong with America's War on Terror ... Obama might have changed the name but it still represents kidnap, rendition, torture and injustice. These were once the trademarks of despots and dictatorships but now they are synonymous with the US. --  The US Justice Department, US intelligence and even the US President are mistaken if they believe that out of sight is out of mind - we heard Dr Aafia Siddiqui screaming in the hell hole of Bagram in Afghanistan where she was held in secret for years and we came running. --  We will rally to her plight again and will not rest until she is free.This is certainly not the end of the campaign for the family of Dr Aafia Siddiqui nor for her many friends and supporters around the world including those of us at Cageprisoners. The fight back for justice starts here and now and will take many shapes and forms over the coming months."

At least 13 US troops killed as another Chinook helicopter shot down by Afghan Taliban in Farah
(This is unconfirmed as of 1:43am PST - 09/25/10) - A quote...."Afghan Taliban shot down a US Chinook helicopter which was flying at a very low altitude in Dasht Rod district using heavy and light weapons. Reports say that in the crash 13 US invaders lost their lives. It is worth mentioning that a few days earlier another helicopter was also brought down in a similar way in Zabul.(Taliban website)" - also posted at WarInIraq

Following Complaints, NATO Releases Captured Afghan Journalists
A quote...."In the wake of a growing number of complaints from journalist groups, NATO announced today that it has release the journalists it had captured earlier in the week. Two were working for Al Jazeera, while the other worked for Afghanistan’s state media."
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US Combat Continues in ‘Post-Combat’ Iraq
A quote...."A military raid in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul  was the latest in a growing series of combat operations by US troops in what was supposed to be “post-combat” Iraq. As US officials continue to laud the “end of combat” and even the “end of the Iraq War” the war and the combat continue to go on."

Iraqi Governor Slams US for Illegal Raid, Arrests
A quote...."The governor of Iraq’s Nineveh Province today condemned a raid by US forces against the neighborhood of  Zammar in the province’s major city of Mosul as a violation of the Withdrawal of the American Forces from Iraq Agreement, which ostensibly ended the combat operations in the nation."

Iraq's winning bloc rejects Maliki as PM again
A quote...."BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The alliance which won most votes in Iraq's March election said on Friday it would not join any government headed by incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a step that could further complicate forming a government."

Iraqi PM offers release of opposition prisoners
A quote...."The political movement of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rejected an offer by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to release its members locked in Iraqi prisons in exchange for their support for him to retain his post, a prominent member of the movement told Al Arabiya TV on Friday."
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Ahmadinejad Speech to the United Nations: Video and Full Transcript (UN translation)
Contains Video - (previously posted) - Alt1 - Alt2 - A quote...."Ahmadinejad supports a full U.N. investigation into the events of Sept. 11th, 2001 like that of the Goldstone Report and the recent investigation of the attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla. It’s no wonder the U.S. delegation walked out. -- Ahmadinejad was simply laying out the three schools of thought on the Sept. 11th attacks 1. the official view  2. that certain administration officials planned and carried out the attacks themselves 3. the view that some administration official “let it happen” in order to take advantage of it. The U.S. delegation got up to walk out at the mere mention of the second view before Ahmadinejad stated that most people agree with it. -- He goes on to make some very good points about what happened directly after the attacks… apparently rational discussion about the U.S. reaction to the events of 9/11 are not tolerated by our representatives. The great lie must never be challenged."

'Iran may halt 20% enrichment'
A quote...."Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Tehran will consider halting uranium enrichment to the level of 20 percent when it is assured the Tehran research reactor has the nuclear fuel supply it needs."

President Ahmadinejad Blasts Unjust Structure of UN
A qutoe...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his speech at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, slammed the "unjust structure" of the UN, and stressed that the structure of the UN Security Council should be reformed based on equal rights for all nations."

A change of heart in Damascus
A quote...."Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made an unannounced trip to Syria on Saturday, stopping off for talks with the country's president, Bashar Al-Assad, at Damascus airport on his way to Algeria for an official visit. Some observers have speculated that the visit could have been connected to earlier visits to the country by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and French envoy Jean-Claude Cousseran." - also posted at Uruknet

Russian, Chinese presidents to take part in completion ceremony of oil pipeline construction
A quote...."Russian and Chinese presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao, will participate in a ceremony of completing a construction of Russian-Chinese oil pipeline, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said. -- Medvedev and Jintao will also attend a ceremony to launch the Chinese section of the Russian East Siberia - Pacific oil pipeline, stretching from the town of Skovorodino in the Amur region to the city of Daqing in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province."

Russia could make aerial drones without Israeli help claims company
A quote...."Russia does not need Israeli assistance to make progress in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), including military drones, the head of a Russian UAV production company said on Thursday. -- A senior Israeli defense source quoted in Flight International said earlier that Israel may tear up much of the unprecedented military cooperation deal it signed with Russia at the start of this month due to anger over Moscow's decision to supply Yakhont naval missiles to Syria."

China plays by its own currency rules
Must Read - A quote...."The past two years have been tough on China-oriented Western economists. China's archaic mercantilism, tight capital controls, over-regulated financial sector, managed exchange rate and, above all, its need to purchase and sterilize massive inflows of foreign exchange were, according the theorists, leading the country to economic calamity. -- However, Western triumphalism in 2008 took a tumble as the West's most sophisticated financial innovators led the world economy off a cliff. Meanwhile, China's ham-fisted socialists saved China and, to a certain extent, the rest of the world with an enormous stimulus program (US$586 billion in domestic spending plus significantly relaxed limits on bank lending) that, as a ratio of  the gross domestic products (GDP), dwarfed America's stimulus spending by a factor of more than five." -- For more on this issue see....Empire Typology and Economic Stellar Evolution - 01-20-10 - mpg

...Promptly Followed By Brazil
Related Article - A quote...."The first global currency wars are now delcared fully open. Participation for all non-gold standard backed countries is mandatory."

[And....] Peru Just Entered The Currency Devaluation Race... Yes, Peru
Related Article - A quote...."

BN  11:42 *PERU CENTRAL BANK ANNOUNCES U.S. CURRENCY PURCHASE ON WEBSITE
BN  11:42 *PERU CENTRAL BANK BUYS U.S. CURRENCY AT 2.7870 SOLES/DOLLAR
BN  11:42 *PERU CENTRAL BANK BUYS $156 MILLION IN FOREIGN-EXCHANGE MARKET

"At least Peru stocks are surging. The wealth effect to the 20 people who hold them is palpable. Apple is already laying the groundwork for its latest store in Lima."

Killings of journalists lead to news blackouts in Mexico
A quote...."MEXICO CITY — Press advocates and newspaper editors say a campaign by criminal syndicates to kill journalists is drawing a dark curtain across swaths of Mexico."
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It Is Official: The US Is a Police State
Must Read - A quote...."On September 24, Jason Ditz reported on Antiwar.com that “the FBI is confirming that this morning they began a number of raids against the homes of antiwar activists in Illinois, Minneapolis, Michigan, and North Carolina, claiming that they are ‘seeking evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism.’” -- Now we know what Homeland Security (sic) secretary Janet Napolitano meant when she said on September 10: “The old view that ‘if we fight the terrorists abroad, we won’t have to fight them here’ is just that – the old view.” The new view, Napolitano said, is “to counter violent extremism right here at home.” -- “Violent extremism” is one of those undefined police state terms that will mean whatever the government wants it to mean." - also posted at OpEdNews & PoorRichardsBlog -- Yeah, like harsh language, criticizing politicians, exposing government corruption, opposing the Empire....that sort of stuff. - mpg

FBI Serves Terrorism Warrants in Minnesota, Chicago
Police State Alert - FBI / Out'a Control - Related Article -- By The Associated Press -- September 24, 2010 -- MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The FBI said it searched eight homes in Minneapolis and Chicago as part of a terrorism investigation on Friday, and two subjects said the agency is targeting leaders of the anti-war movement. -- FBI spokesman Steve Warfield told The Associated Press agents served six warrants in Minneapolis and two in Chicago. -- "These were search warrants only," Warfield said. "We're not anticipating any arrests at this time. They're seeking evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism." -- The home of Minneapolis anti-war activists Mick Kelly and Jess Sundin were among those searched, they told the AP. -- "The FBI is harassing anti-war organizers and leaders, folks who opposed U.S. intervention in the Middle East and Latin America," Kelly said before agents confiscated his cell phone." - Source:  AP -- For more on this issue see....The Nation's Privy Cleaners - 04-26-10 - mpg

False Flag: Mock drills held hours before New Delhi Metro station's real attack
Possible False Flag Attack Exposed - A quote...."Three hours before motorcycle-borne assailants fired at tourists in front of Jama Masjid, the Delhi Police and other civic authorities, including DMRC, NDMC, fire services and the Delhi Disaster Management Authority were, ironically, busy preparing themselves to deal with such a scenario. -- Mock drills were conducted at six Metro stations at RK Puram, Karkardooma, Vishwavidyalaya, New Delhi, Botanical Garden (Noida) and IFFCO Chowk (Gurgaon). The police are supposed to be on a high alert during the entire duration of a mock drill." - Source:  Indian Express - For more on this type of issue see....Just Give it a Rest OK!! - 11-27-09 - mpg

The Dismantling of Civilized Society - Article also posted at ICH
Special Note - A quote...."...."the alternative' to the Democrats are the very folks who put us in these crises to start with, and they are now explicitly devoted to making conditions even worse for ordinary Americans. That's exactly what will happen, of course, and if you think the present moment is grim, wait until you see how much fun the next two years are gonna be. They're gonna look like the mangled and ferocious spawn of a tainted marriage between the Depression politics of the Hoover era, the sick depravity of McCarthyism, the relentless scandal-mongering of the Gingrich era, and the completely unmitigated greed of the Cheney years. Welcome to the dismantling of civilized society in America. Yes, yes, I know it's quite arguable whether such a beast ever existed. Well, at least that's one debate we're about to put to rest definitively." - bold by website editor - Well folks, just go to the polls en mass, and don't vote for either a Demo or Repub, just vote for someone else....ANYONE ELSE!! - mpg

I Am Detained By the Feds for Not Answering Questions
A small but important victory. - mpg -- A quote...."I was detained last night by federal authorities at San Francisco International Airport for refusing to answer questions about why I had travelled outside the United States. -- The end result is that, after waiting for about half an hour and refusing to answer further questions, I was released – because U.S. citizens who have produced proof of citizenship and a written customs declaration are not obligated to answer questions."
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

UN report into flotilla assault places the BBC in bad light
Israeli Presstitute Exposed - A quote...."he UNHRC conclusions place the BBC's Panorama programme in a particularly bad light. Panorama's "Death in the Med" episode in August attracted hundreds of complaints of bias towards the Israeli position; journalist Jane Corbin was given access to the Israeli commando unit which carried out the attack. The Guardian claims that the Israelis refused to cooperate with the UNHRC investigation." - also posted at Uruknet & WarInIraq

Toddler killed by tear gas in East Jerusalem
A quote...."JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian toddler was reported dead late Friday after Israeli forces fired tear gas amid clashes in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem." - also posted at AlethoNews

Israeli navy kills Gaza fisherman
A quote...."A Palestinian fisherman has been shot dead by the Israeli navy off the Gaza Strip. -- "Fisherman Mohammed Bakr died by a bullet by the Israeli navy today in the sea north of the Gaza Strip," Adham Abu Selmiya, heading the Palestinian territory's medical services, said on Friday." - also posted at Uruknet

Israel kills as it talks
A quote...."Israeli occupation forces have killed a Palestinian man in the northern West Bank in what eyewitnesses and neighbours described as "a cold-blooded murder" and "extrajudicial" execution. -- The murder took place at the Noor Shams Refugee Camp on 17 September in an area that is supposed to be under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA). -- The family of Eyad Abu Shilbaneh said Israeli soldiers showered the 38-year-old Islamic political activist with bullets, even though he posed no threat to the soldiers."

Man shot with live ammunition at Bil’in wall protest
A quote...."Ashraf Al-Khatib was shot in the leg with a 0.22” caliber live bullet at the weekly demonstration against the illegal apartheid wall. An international nonviolent activist was also hit in the shoulder with a low-flying tear gas canister. The hundreds of other participants were attacked with huge quantities of tear gas." - also posted at AlethoNews

Police release the Jewish settler who shot a Palestinian in Silwan
A quote...."NAZARETH, (PIC)-- A Jewish settler was released on bail Wednesday after killing a Palestinian man in the Silwan district of Jerusalem, as tensions rise in Jerusalem in wake of the shooting." - also posted at Uruknet & WarInIraq

DCI-Palestine and PCATI request investigation in assault case
A quote..."[22 September 2010] – On 20 September 2010, DCI-Palestine and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) wrote to the Judge Advocate General’s office requesting an immediate investigation into the alleged assault of a 14-year-old boy in May 2010, in which an interrogator is alleged to have attached a set of car jump leads to the boy's genitals." -- For more on Amerka's role in this sort of thing see....John "Testicle Crusher" Yoo

Why Mitchell Said ‘No’ to Hamas - posted at ICH
A quote...."September 24, 2010 "Information Clearing House" --  One key difference between Hamas and its rival, the Fatah movement in the West Bank, is that Hamas is accountable to a much more complex set of priorities and expectations. While Fatah is effortlessly co-opted, Hamas remains confined by ideological standards and the stringiest political space. Although, on one hand this represents Hamas' greatest strength, on the other it shows just how truly arduous is its political undertaking."

UPDATE 1-Egypt frees Hamas strongman
A quote...."GAZA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Egypt freed on Friday a top Hamas security official after holding him for 10 days on what Cairo media described as allegations of involvement in smuggling to the Gaza Strip and the killing of an Egyptian border guard."

Hamas urges UN to prosecute Israel
A quote...."A spokesman for the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, says the UN should prosecute Israeli leaders for the attack against a Gaza-bound convoy."
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The Bastard Child of the Mother of All Bubbles
Must Read - Charts - A quote...."Easy Al Greenspan created the Mother of All Bubbles by keeping interest rates at 1% for a prolonged period of time while encouraging everyone to take out adjustable rate mortgages. His unshakeable faith in the free market policing itself allowed Wall Street criminals, knaves and dirtbags to create fraudulent mortgage products which were then marketed to willing dupes and “retired” internet day traders. Al’s easy money policies and disinterest in enforcing existing banking regulations also birthed the ugly stepsister of the Mother of All Bubbles. Her name is the Consumer Debt Bubble. The chart below is hauntingly similar to the home price chart above. The consumer will be deleveraging for the next ten years. The numbskulls on CNBC and the other mainstream media have been falsely reporting for months that consumers were deleveraging when it was really just debt being written off by banks. Baby Boomers are not prepared for retirement and will be shifting dramatically from consuming to saving. As consumer expenditures decline from 70% of GDP back to 65% of GDP, consumer debt will resemble the home price chart to the downside." - also posted at LewRockwell & OpEdNews & ZeroHedge

A Red-Alert Threat to the Regime
A quote...."In 2011, Congressman Ron Paul will introduce a bill in the House of Representatives calling for an audit of the gold held by the Federal Reserve System on behalf of the United States government. If he can successfully promote this bill by the phrase, "Show us the gold!" he will inflict enormous damage on the American Establishment. This damage could conceivably spread to the entire international Establishment, which rests on the sovereignty of the central banks over their domestic governments."

Three Wholesale Credit Unions Nationalized As US Securitizes $50 Billion In Legacy Toxic Assets; Failure "Sweep Under The Rug" Friday Just Got Real -- A quote...."It is Friday afternoon, and of course the most troubling news come out. Last week it was that the idiots in charge are raising their stake in Ally to 80%; this week also did not disappoint: the WSJ reports what can arguably be the most important story of the week - to wit: the government just seized three wholesale credit unions and has launched an "unusual plan" to manage $50 billion of troubled assets inherited from failed institutions. The unions taken into conservatorship include Members United Corporate Federal Credit Union in Warrenville, Ill., Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union of Plano, Texas, and Constitution Corporate Federal Credit Union, Wallingford, Conn., which had a total of $19.67 billion in assets as of July."

New-home sales match second-lowest ever
Chart - A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. sales of new homes were flat in August at the second lowest level on record as the housing market continues to struggle after government tax breaks ended in April."

Are Stocks Overvalued By $4+ Trillion? Quantifying The Fed's Impact On The Stock Market
Chart - (click to enlarge - note: light colored line is the S&P500, dark colored line is the 2yr Note yield) -- A quote...."A few months ago we penned an article titled: "Bond Yields Imply The Fair Value Of The S&P Is 750" and this was when the 10 Year was still above 3.00%. It is now around 40 bps tighter, meaning the fair value of stocks is even lower based on the historical 75% regression pattern we indicated back in June. Today, David Rosenberg also chimes in on this ridiculous divergence between the S&P and bonds, and in graphic form shows that should the gap ever close, it would lead the stock market to its fair value, which ironically, is just around the March 2009 lows of 666." - Perhaps the divergence is the result of Fed pumping, the Fed buys notes and bonds, yields go down (and prices go up). The Fed buys stocks, prices go up....and both do so at the same time. The chart might also be an indication of Hyper(inflation)-Depression, stocks are pricing in all that money pumping and printing, while notes and bonds are pricing in further macro-economic deterioration?? - mpg

Hooray, the Recession Is Over!
A quote...."Let's say you are running and then break a leg. You have to crawl now, but you  develop that skill and are able to get from here to there. Are you in recovery from  the accident? According to the NBER, yes — so long as you are crawling faster  than when you first hit the ground in agony. "

Thursday September 23rd 2010

Project Censored "censored" because of Stance on 9/11 Truth!
Must Listen Audio - A quote...."This years new Project Censored 2011 Book has been released including numerous stories and references to the 9/11 cover up. Dr. Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff explain in this interview that they have been censored by so called "alternative" left wing publications because of their refusal to drop 9/11 truth content! -- From the show notes: "Censored 2011" with Dr. Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff. We discuss the new Project Censored book and some of the most censored news stories of the past year." - click here > ProjCensored@Guns&Butter

9/11/10 AE911Truth Press Conference at WTC 7
Video - RG&MB(1/4) - RG&MB(2/4) - RG&MB(3/4) - RG&MB(4/4) - (YuTb - 10m - September 14, 2010) -- A quote...."Richard Gage, AIA of AE911Truth and Manny Badillo of NYC CAN speak to hundreds of activists in front of WTC 7 on 9/11/10"

Ethical Reflections on the 9/11 Controversy: The Responsibility of the Media to To Tell the Truth
A quote...."Nine-eleven has done more to change the world’s political landscape than any other event since World War II. -- And 9/11 is far from over: it triggered what Western leaders have declared an “endless” or “generational” war on terror. Even President Obama stated in March 2009 that the Afghan-Pakistan border region “has become the most dangerous place in the world” for the American people.[1] -- Increasingly, however, the official account of its cause has come under rigorous scientific scrutiny and doubt. In Europe, strong media coverage followed the unchallenged 2009 discovery of high-tech military explosives in the World Trade Center dust.[2] -- Given the enormous international expense, suffering, and death that continue to hemorrhage from the wound of 9/11, it is vital that librarians and media professionals acquire the knowledge and ethical support to perform their part in addressing the rising tide of doubt."

Entrapment likely issue in Chicago bomb plot AP Sept 22
FBI - Out'a Control -- A quote...."CHICAGO – As prosecutors take up the challenge of trying to convict a man arrested in an alleged bomb plot in Chicago, they may have to show the suspect wasn't egged on by an informant or undercover FBI agents into a crime he didn't initially intend to commit."

More questions than answers in FBI spy case - link posted at ICH
FBI  - Out'a Control -- A quote...."A Writers' Workshop graduate would have a hard time writing a story more Orwellian than this: A few dozen student and community peace organizers, known in Iowa City for their theatrical — if sometimes confrontational — direct-action street protests, become the subject of a nine-month criminal investigation by the FBI, and they were followed around  for hundreds of hours by government agents as they went grocery shopping at the New Pioneer Co-op and boozing at the Deadwood and the Mill. -- Unfortunately, the emergence of this troubling news raises more questions than it does answers — or even jokes."

Wikileaks Prepares Next Big Document Dump, While Media and Pentagon Continue Smear Campaign Against Its Founder - Press Intimidation Alert - A quote...."September 20, 2010  |    Scheduled for release in the next few weeks in concert with international and American media outlets, Wikileaks' data dump on Iraq could prove to be just as explosive as its download on Afghanistan. -- According to Newsweek, the Iraq collection is already three times larger than the 92,000 Afghan field reports made public in Wikileaks' last release, and perhaps the largest in history." - also posted at Uruknet
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America Is Suffering a Power Outage …and the Rest of the World Knows It - Article also posted at ICH
Must Read - A quote...."    “Make poverty history!”  A catchy slogan, and an admirable aim, it was adopted by world leaders at the United Nations summit in New York on the eve of the New Millennium. A decade later, it is America which has made history -- even if in the opposite direction. The latest U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that, in 2009, one in seven Americans was living below the poverty line, the highest figure in half a century. Last month’s 95,000-plus home foreclosures broke all records. -- These were only two of the recent glaring signs of the sagging might of the globe’s “sole superpower,” now heavily indebted to Beijing. Other recent indicators include its failure to corral China into revaluing its currency, the yuan, against the dollar, and to compel Russia, China, India, or even Pakistan to follow its lead in suppressing the oil and natural gas trade with Iran.  With Washington failing to impose its monetary or energy policies on the rest of the world, we have entered a new era in history."

The Collapse of Western Morality - posted at ICH
Must Read - A quote...." September 23, 2010 "Information Clearing House" --  Yes, I know, as many readers will be quick to inform me, the West never had any morality. Nevertheless things have gotten worse. --  In hopes that I will be permitted to make a point, permit me to acknowledge that the US dropped nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities, fire-bombed Tokyo, that Great Britain and the US fire-bombed Dresden and a number of other German cities, expending more destructive force, according to some historians, against the civilian German population than against the German armies, that President Grant and his Civil War war criminals, Generals Sherman and Sheridan, committed genocide against the Plains Indians, that the US today enables Israel’s genocidal policies against the Palestinians, policies that one Israeli official has compared to 19th century US genocidal policies against the American Indians, that the US in the new 21st century invaded Iraq and Afghanistan on contrived pretenses, murdering countless numbers of civilians, and that British prime minister Tony Blair lent the British army to his American masters, as did other NATO countries, all of whom find themselves committing war crimes under the Nuremberg standard in lands in which they have no national interests, but for which they receive an American pay check." - also posted at Hamsayeh & OpEdNews

Obama at the UN: The arrogant voice of imperialism
Must Read - A quote...."President Barack Obama used his speech at the United Nations General Assembly Thursday to defend US wars and state terror abroad and to proclaim that the economic crisis has been resolved thanks to his Wall Street bailout. -- The US president received a noticeably tepid response from the assembled UN delegates. While in his first address to the body last year, he was able to pose as a fresh alternative to the crimes carried out by the Bush administration, by now it has become clear to most on the international stage that his administration’s policies are largely in continuity with those of its predecessor. -- In its tone and its content, the Obama speech was the authentic and arrogant voice of US imperialism."
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THE IRAQ WAR -- PART I: [& PART 2] -- The U.S. Prepares for Conflict, 2001
Must Read - A quote...."Talking points for Rumsfeld-Franks meeting in november 2001 outline policy makers’ aims for the conflict and postwar rule of Iraq  - declassified documents show Bush administration diverting attention and resources to Iraq less than two months after launch of afghanistan war - National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 326" - Source:  The National Security Archive

Denial, Selective Perception and Military Atrocities
Special Note - A quote...."When the horrors of the sadistic, near necrophile behaviour of U.S., personnel at Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, first showed the tip-of-the-iceberg-lie of "liberation": cruelty, depravity and bestiality on a scale which apparently dwarfed all that Saddam Hussein's regime had been accused of, President George W. Bush said: " This does not represent the America I know." -- He should have...."

Soothing Falsities - The End of Combat My Eye
A quote...."The press made a big deal of it. The president even starred in an Oval Office TV show about the “end to U.S. combat” in Iraq, which was announced on August 31. Mr. Obama said he’d fulfilled a promise to end the war. -- Obama’s bit of theater cost less than George Bush’s May 1, 2003 shameless declaration of “mission accomplished,” his circus-act-in-military-flight-suit-to-the-flight-deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Yet the president’s speech was just as dishonest." - also posted at AlethoNews

This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan
A quote...."More private contractors than soldiers were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months, the first time in history that corporate casualties have outweighed military losses on America’s battlefields." - also posted at  WarInIraq

Debacle in Afghanistan: British troops withdraw from Sangin
A quote...."On September 20, the last 1,000 remaining UK troops withdrew from Sangin, southern Afghanistan. After more than four years, they handed over control of their bases to the United States. -- The withdrawal is officially presented as merely redeployment, with the troops, part of an overall total British force of 9,500 in Afghanistan, being sent to the central Helmand province. But nothing can gloss over the fact that Britain has suffered a major defeat."
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Ahmadinejad’s Speech at The UN & US Delegates Walkout! - Transcript posted at ICH
Video - A@UN(1/2) - A@UN(2/2) -- (YuTb - 15min each - September 23, 2010) - Source:  Tehrran -- A quote...."Ahmadinejad's Speech at The UN. Delegates from the US walked out of the UN during a speech by Ahmadinejad after he suggested 9/11 was the work of America to save Israel." -- For more on 9/11 see....Reficultnias's 9/11 Central

Ahmadinejad tells U.N. most blame U.S. gov't for 9/11
Related Article - A quote...."UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the United Nations on Thursday most people believe the U.S. government was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, prompting the U.S. and European delegations to leave the hall in protest." - Source:  Reuters

"In the Interests of Israel": Why Russia will not sell the S-300 Air Defense System to Iran
Must Read -- A quote...."Russian army chief of staff Gen. N. Makarov broke the news on September 22 that Russia will not sell the S-300 air defense systems to Iran. Regardless of official explanations, it does not take an expert to realize that as a purely defensive system designed to shield a country from aircraft and cruise missile attacks the S-300 complexes cannot pose a threat to any country unless it attacks the one owning them." - also posted at AlethoNews & ICH

Iran cautions Russia on S-300 delivery
Related Article - Quote of the Day...."A lot of pressure has been exerted on the Russians, and they have so far proven their inability to reach the correct decision," Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi told al-Alam television. -- "We have repeatedly said that it would not be in Russia's interests to present itself as an unreliable and undependable partner," he added. -- Vahidi further stressed that since the UN Sanctions Resolution 1929, which targets Iran's military and financial sectors, does not specifically ban the delivery of defensive missiles, Moscow has no excuse for refusing to commit to the deal. -- "We are not happy to see Russia belittled by the US and Israel, or to see them branded as their scribes," the Iranian general told Fars News Agency earlier on Thursday." - bold by website editor

Iran to Manufacture Own Version of S-300
Related Article - A quote...."September 23, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) – Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said the country plans to manufacture an effective anti-aircraft missile defense system similar to S-300 in the future, as reported by Iran’s Fars news agency on Wednesday."

Iranian President, Brazilian FM Meet in New York
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim held a meeting to discuss bilateral relations and the latest regional and international developments."

Talk of 'revolution' in Pakistan - link posted at ICH
A quote...."For the past week in Pakistan, there has been rising speculation that the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government is on its way out. -- Some staunch supporters of the establishment have made no secret of their opinions, saying the party is finished. -- Whether or not that is indeed the case, there is plenty of political manoeuvring making headline news in anticipation of change."

Japan releases Chinese captain
BREAKING:  Fri Sep 24, 2010 6:13AM - This little spat (no doubt organized by the CIA's psyops dept. in conjunction with a cooperative faction in Japan) is now definatively over. - mpg -- A quote...."We decided it was inappropriate to continue the investigation while keeping the suspect in custody any further, considering the future of the Japan-China relationship," an official from the Osaka prosecutors' office said at news conference on Friday afternoon."

Aafia Siddiqui Sentenced: A Grievous Miscarriage of Justice
A quote...."Aafia Siddiqui Sentenced: A Grievous Miscarriage of Justice - by Stephen Lendman -- On September 23 in federal court, US District Court Judge Richard Berman sentenced political prisoner Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in prison. Outrage most accurately expresses this gross miscarriage of justice, compounding what she's already endured following her March 30, 2003 abduction, imprisonment, torture, prosecution, and conviction on bogus charges. - also posted at AlethoNews & OpEdNews

22 dead, 80 wounded in Somali capital battles (Roundup) - link posted at ICH
A quote...." Mogadishu - At least 22 people have been killed and 80 wounded in heavy fighting between insurgents and government forces in the Somali capital Mogadishu, an official said Thursday. -- 'These are the worst casualties we have seen for months,' Ali Muse, head of Mogadishu's ambulance service, told the German Press Agency dpa. 'Our staff are still collecting casualties, so the number (of killed and injured) could go up.'"

Quito: Ecuador, Nicaragua Negotiations Begin
A quote...."Quito, Sep 23 (Prensa Latina) The first round of negotiations between Ecuador and Nicaragua begins on Thursday, with the goal of deepening integration and promoting the expansion and diversification of exchanges, trade cooperation, and economic complementation."
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U.N. Human Rights Council's report on Israel's raid on Gaza aid flotilla (Full Text)
Document - Scribd - A quote...."Human Rights Council - Fifteenth session - Agenda item 7 - Human Rights situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories - Report of the international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, resulting from the Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance" - Source:  United Nations

UN's Gaza flotilla probe finds Israeli soldiers committed 'willful killing'
Related Article - A quote...."There is clear evidence to support prosecutions of the following crimes within the terms of article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health,” wrote the report's authors. -- The council also found that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is “unlawful” because of the humanitarian crisis, reports the BBC." - also posted at Uruknet

Obama Defends Israel a Day After UN Report Details Israel’s Act of War Committed Against the U.S.
Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."What if I told you that Iran boarded a U.S. flagged vessel in international waters and executed a 19-year-old U.S. citizen simply because of his beliefs. Is that an act of war?  Is it an act of war if Israel did it? -- In the wake of the newly released UN Human Rights Council’s report on the attack of the humanitarian aid flotilla which found “clear evidence to support prosecutions” against Israel for “willful killing“, President Barack Obama is addressing the UN today and reportedly is going to remind the world that “killing Israelis is not resistance, it’s injustice” (emphasis added) --  It should be clear to all that efforts to chip away at Israel’s legitimacy will only be met by the unshakeable opposition of the United States,” he was expected to say, according to excerpts of the speech obtained by NBC News. " - The most obsequious, crawling, cravenly disgusting, AIPAC/Israeli butt-kisser ever spawned from this nation's cess-pit of Zio-worshipers and inflicted on this country and the rest of the world.  Why doesn't that pathetic excuse of a president renounce his citizenship (assuming he is a citizen) and just move his step'n and fetch'n well used ass to Israel so he can be Netanyahu's personal slave? - mpg

Lessons of resistance from southern Lebanon
A quote...."In May 2000, after two decades of brutal Israeli rule and stiff resistance, the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon suddenly ended. The Israeli army fled in haste and within hours the South Lebanon Army (SLA) -- its local collaborator militia -- collapsed and many of its members also fled to Israel where they still live. Joyful Lebanese, including tens of thousands of displaced southerners, streamed home to the liberated lands."
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (16-22 September 2010)
Another week of death and destruction....   also posted at Uruknet

• IOF extra-judicially executed a Palestinian in Nour Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm.
• Guards of Israeli settlements killed a Palestinian civilian and wounded two others in Silwan village in Jerusalem.
• IOF continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank.
• Two Palestinian children and two human rights defenders were wounded.
• IOF arrested two Palestinian civilians and two human rights defenders.   
• IOF launched a number of air strikes against civilian targets in the Gaza Strip.
• A store and a country house were destroyed.
• IOF conducted 37 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.  
• IOF arrested 38 Palestinian civilians, including 7 children.
• IOF broke into a school in Hebron and arrested two school children.
• Israel has continued to take measures aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem.
• IOF started to construct a new section of the annexation wall in Shu'fat refugee camp.
• Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
• IOF have imposed a total closure on the OPT until the end of September because of Jewish holidays.
• Israeli troops stationed at military checkpoints and border crossings in the West Bank arrested at least 7 Palestinian civilians.
• IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.
• IOF delivered notices to 8 Palestinian civilians in Deir Ballout village ordering them to stop building their houses.
• Israeli settlers uprooted 70 grape trees in Hebron.

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Keiser Report №80: Markets! Finance! Scandal!
MKVideo - Alt - (MK&RTYuTb - September 23, 2010) - Source:  RussiaToday - Producer:  Max Keiser TV -- A quote...."This time Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, look at the scandals of World War III ending before it even started thanks to Goldman Sachs seeking to move into Iran; and taking on the bourse Abbie Hoffmann style. In the second half of the show, Max goes to New York to talk to Joe Weisenthal from BusinessInsider.com to talk bedbugs, gold and pensioners."

M2 Update: 10th Consecutive Increase, And Some Troubling Trends
Chart - A quote...."In the week ended September 13, M2 rose to a fresh all time record, just above $8.7 trillion, representing the 10th consecutive increase in the broadest monetary aggregate tracked by the Federal Reserve, during which time $115 billion in new liquidity has been injected in the US economy. Additionally, since the 2010 M2 lows recorded oddly enough on April 19, around the time when the S&P peaked for 2010, there has been $235 billion of money injected into M2."

U.S. Home Prices Fell 3.3% in July From Year Earlier
A quote...."U.S. home prices dropped 3.3 percent in July from a year earlier, the eighth consecutive decline, as foreclosed properties flooded the market. -- Prices fell 0.5 percent from June, the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington said in a report today. Economists had projected prices to fall 0.2 percent from the previous month, based on the average of 15 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The agency revised the previously reported May-to-June decline to 1.2 percent from 0.3 percent."

That 'Official' Poverty Rate? It's Much Worse than You Think - Article also posted at ICH
A quote...."While the shocking new poverty statistics from the Census Bureau indicating that a record 43.6 million Americans lived in poverty in 2009 emphatically demonstrates the severity of the economic crisis, the Census is drastically undercounting this demographic. Apparently the government's poverty statistics are as accurate as its unemployment statistics."

FREE Money for Millionaires!!!
A quote...."A new study shows that tens of billions of dollars in US government tax breaks and other incentives mostly went to the wealthiest Americans last year. Of nearly $400 billion in spending to spur growth in home ownership, retirement savings, business start-ups and education, more than half benefited the wealthiest five percent of taxpayers.  The study was sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Corporation for Enterprise Development. The authors conclude: "We can ill afford a federal wealth-building strategy that primarily helps those who are already wealthy."

Wednesday September 22nd 2010

'Israel flotilla raid was unlawful'
Must Read - Some of the quotes...."The three UN-appointed human rights experts said in a report released on Wednesday that Israeli forces showed "incredible violence" during and after their raid on the aid flotilla that left eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American killed. -- The UN probe said  there was "clear evidence to support prosecutions" against Israel for "wilful killing" and torture committed when its troops stormed the aid flotilla last May. -- Israel's military response to the flotilla "betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality" and violated international law "including international humanitarian and human rights law." The three-member panel said. "The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence."

"The report also rejected Israel's stance that its forces acted in self-defence when they raided the flotilla, arguing that even those who did not attempt to stop Israeli soldiers from boarding the aid ships "received injuries, including fatal injuries." -- "It is apparent that no effort was made to minimise injuries at certain states of the operation and that the use of live fire was done in an extensive and arbitrary manner. The circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were [also] in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution." - bold/underline by website editor - also posted at AlethoNews
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5 surprising facts about spying in America.
Must Read - Some quotes...."Here are 5 surprising facts about spying in America. - We understand if some of this sounds far-fetched. But take a look for yourself, and see if you can disprove these claims."

1. Cheney and Rumsfeld Pushed for Warrantless Wiretaps in the '70s -- "Dick Cheney, Donald Rumseld and other government officials who held high positions in the George W. Bush administration pushed for wiretaps without approval by a judge ... in the 1970s."
2. Massive Spying on Americans Began Before 9/11 -- "You know about the government's massive program of spying on Americans which has been justified as a necessary response to 9/11?  Whistleblowers from major telecommunications companies have testified that the program began before 9/11 (confirmed here and here)."
3. U.S. and Allied Intelligence Heard the 9/11 Hijackers Plans from Their Own Mouths -- The 9/11 hijackers were largely unknown prior to that horrible event, right? Actually, U.S. and allied intelligence services heard a lot from the hijackers' own mouths prior to 9/11:
4. The Spying Program Has Not Been Narrowly Tailored to Keeping Americans Safe -- We would all hope that the spying program has been tightly focused on protecting Americans from terrorists. - However, as I noted in 2008:..."
5. The Spying Program Isn't Just Used for Listening ... It Also Is Used to Track Americans and Predict Behavior -- As I noted in 2008, it's not just spying, but also tracking and predicting what American citizens will do...." - also posted at DProgram & BLN & ZeroHedge
   

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9/11 - From The History File...US planned war in Afghanistan long before September 11

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John le Carré: "The United States of America Has Gone Mad" - Article also posted at ICH
Must View Video - A quote...."While John le Carré is famous for his spy novels, he wrote a widely read antiwar essay in 2003 titled "The United States of America Has Gone Mad." He reads an excerpt. [includes rush transcript]" -- ||  Real Video Stream  ||  Real Audio Stream  ||  MP3 Download  ||  More…  || - Text also posted at Hamsayeh -- Some more of John le Carré's interview shown below....

Legendary British Author John le Carré on Why He Won’t Be Reading Tony Blair’s Iraq War-Defending Memoir
A quote...."David Cornwell, the legendary British novelist who writes under the name John le Carré, joins us in London. A former British spy, his books include The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and The Constant Gardener. On the heels of the publication of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Iraq war-defending memoir A Journey, le Carré explains why he refused to interview Blair and why he won’t be reading his memoir. [includes rush transcript]" -- ||  Real Video Stream  ||  Real Audio Stream  ||  MP3 Download  ||  More…  ||

Gerald Celente on The Gary Null show
Must View Video - Stick with it folks, Gerald and Gary are great! - mpg - (YuTb -  54min 50sec - September 22, 2010) - Source:  EconomyMeltdown -- A quote...."GCBlogSpot - for details"

Glenn Greenwald on Iran, Tea Party Candidates, Jon Stewart and Obama’s Assassination Policy
Video - A quote...."We speak with Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional law attorney and the political and legal blogger for Salon.com. Greenwald discusses White House rhetoric toward Iran; Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s planned rallies in Washington, DC; the Obama administration’s assassination policy that includes targeting US citizens; tea party candidates in the November midterm elections; and much more. [includes rush transcript]" -- ||  Real Video Stream  ||  Real Audio Stream  ||  MP3 Download  ||  More…  ||

What Do Empires Do? - posted at ICH
Some Quotes of the Day...."I define imperialism as follows: the process whereby the dominant investor interests in one country bring to bear their economic and military power upon another nation or region in order to expropriate its land, labor, natural resources, capital, and markets—in such a manner as to enrich the investor interests. In a word, empires do not just pursue “power for power’s sake.” There are real and enormous material interests at stake, fortunes to be made many times over."  ---  "Empires are enormously profitable for the dominant economic interests of the imperial nation but enormously costly to the people of the colonized country. In addition to suffering the pillage of their lands and natural resources, the people of these targeted countries are frequently killed in large numbers by the intruders." - also posted at GlobalRsrch
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Tariq Ali on "The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad"
Must View Interview - A quote...."We speak with British Pakistani political commentator, writer, activist and editor of the New Left Review, Tariq Ali. He is the author of numerous books; his latest is The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad. [includes rush transcript]" - ||  Real Video Stream  ||  Real Audio Stream  ||  MP3 Download  ||  More…  ||

Iraqi Refugee Describes Torture, Imprisonment of Husband Who Returned to Iraq to Free Jailed Son
A quote...."Rabiha al Qassab, a British Iraqi woman who lives in London, describes the harrowing story of her husband, Ramze Shihab Ahmed. Having fled in 1998 after being accused of trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Ramze returned to Iraq last year to get his son out of prison. He, too, was arrested and was tortured. Like 30,000 other Iraqis, he and his son are being held without charge. [includes rush transcript]" -- ||  Real Video Stream  ||  Real Audio Stream  ||  MP3 Download  ||  More…  ||
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The Rise of Iran
Must Read - Geo-Political Analysis - A quote...."Is it jaw-jaw rather than war-war with Iran? Portions of the US military industrial complex obviously want war-war, but the pushback from other US military, intelligence and civilian sectors seem to mitigate its possibility. We remember when it seemed certain that the Bush administration was mustering support among DC elites for a quick and "surgical" strike against Iran. It was a close thing in our opinion, but it didn't happen. -- And now it seems the pressure for war has subsided a little. Of course, reading Washington (and Israeli) tea-leaves is difficult – and certainly Israel remains a wild card. But absent war we think we can start to discern the new order of the Middle Eastern landscape." - also posted at LewRockwell

Ahmadinejad: Israeli PM an assassin
A quote...."Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Israeli prime minister is a professional assassin, who should be tried for his crimes against the people of Palestine. - “[Benjamin] Netanyahu should be tried in court for blockading Gaza and massacring innocent Palestinian women and children,” Ahmadinejad said in an interview with CNN’s Larry King on Wednesday." - also posted at AlethoNews & Hamsayeh

Defense Ministry Equips IRGC with Upgraded Fateh-110 Missiles
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh declared that Iran's Defense Ministry has equipped his units with Fateh-110 ballistic missiles with an upgraded range of 300 km, and said his force is due to be equipped with more modern missiles on a monthly basis."
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Complaints of Fraud in Afghan Vote Grow - 3,764 Complaints Already Submitted, Many More Expected
A quote...."Despite a dismally low turnout and pre-vote surveys suggesting most Afghans fully expected the vote to be marred by systemic corruption, Afghanistan’s Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) says it has already received 3,764 complaints related to Saturday’s election and the process leading up to it."

Al Jazeera slams ISAF over arrests
Press Intimidation Alert - Contains Video - Alt - A quote...."Al Jazeera has called on the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) to immediately release two of its cameramen arrested in Afghanistan over the last 72 hours. -- In a statement issued on Wednesday, Al Jazeera said the arrests were "an attempt by the Isaf leadership to suppress its comprehensive coverage of the Afghan war". -- The two Al Jazeera cameramen detained are Mohamed Nader and Rahmatullah Nekzad. -- According to Nader's wife, he was picked up from his home in southern Kandahar by Isaf troops on September 22." - also posted at AlethoNews & Uruknet

Murderers, Cowards, Morons and Thieves: Portrait of an Empire in a Political Season
Must Read - A quote...."Jason Ditz at Antiwar.com continues his lonely vigil of documenting the carnage  being inflicted upon civilians in Pakistan by the increasingly frenzied drone missile attacks ordered by the Peace Laureate in the White House. -- Almost every day, Ditz has fresh hell to offer up on the story of this remarkably brazen campaign of outright war crimes. Most of his pieces draw on foreign sources; there is almost nothing in the American press about this literally inhuman invasion of the sovereign territory of a nation allied to the United States. It is truly a bizarre situation; then again, in a militarist system whose pervasive moral depravity has long reached lunatic proportions, murdering the children of your allies is perhaps not so unusual. Certainly, the guardians of our public discourse don’t consider it newsworthy in any way." - also posted at Uruknet & OpEdNews

At Least 28 Killed in Latest Series of US Drone Strikes Against Pakistan
Related Article - A quote...."Pakistan’s remote tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan are in a state of virtual panic tonight as US drones continue to loom in the air and three attacks against separate towns across the region killed at least 28 people and wounded an unknown number of others. -- Officials have so far failed to identify any of the targets of the attacks, but reports from the ground suggest that one of the US drones attacked a funeral procession that was carried out for people killed in a previous attack." -- What does that make it?  Five or six wedding parties and a couple of funeral processions so far?  Why the people of Pakistan, or for that matter, Pakistan's military sit still for this is a complete mystery to this website editor. - mpg

Colin Powell's Tolerance of Murder - posted at ConsortiumNews
A quote...."Former Secretary of State and retired four-star Gen. Colin Powell has returned as the Washington media's favorite oracle, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to tell President Barack Obama, the Republican Party and the nation what they should be doing. That has been followed by media figures like MSNBC’s Chris Matthews swooning at the revealed wisdom from the ultimate Wise Man."

A crazed ethnic cleanser world leader has his finger on the nuclear button  - posted at OnlineJounal
A quote...."(WMR) -- He has been linked to instigating terrorist arson attacks in his own country to beef up his popularity before elections, he has been attacked by former Cuban President Fidel Castro who said he is ”going crazy” and cannot be trusted with his finger on the nuclear button, he is ethnically-cleansing his country of people he despises, he is embroiled in a scandal involving receiving illegal campaign contributions from a billionaire heiress, he has been cited as an agent for a foreign intelligence service, he has verbally attacked a tiny neighbor that is half the size of Delaware, and he has openly sparred with the president of the European Commission. -- We are not talking about some dictator in the Middle East or Northeast Asia but the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy." - And here this website editor was sure Wayne was talking about Nuttyaawho of Israel. - mpg
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Report: Afghan Security [Conquest] Deteriorating -- Claims of Progress Ring Hollow Following Latest Report
A quote...."Despite repeated claims of progress from their American allies, the latest quarterly report from the Canadian government cautions that the security situation in Afghanistan is continuing to worsen. -- The report cites an “increasingly volatile” nation in which assassinations are growing and casualties are reaching new record levels on a regular basis."

Russia vows not to freeze military cooperation with Iran
A quote...."Russia and Iran will continue military cooperation, despite Russia's support of the latest UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said."

Russia, Kyrgyzstan settle disputes on unified military base
A quote...."Russia and Kyrgyzstan have settled all disputes surrounding the creation of the United Russian Military Base in Kyrgyzstan, deputy chief of the General Staff Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday."

Russia to Send Venezuela 10 Oil Tankers Worth $700 Million
A quote...."MOSCOW – Russia will send Venezuela 10 Aframax crude oil tankers valued at $700 million, state-owned United Shipbuilding Company said. -- “The agreement foresees delivery of 10 tankers to Venezuela through 2016,” USC official spokesman Igor Riabov said, referring to the document signed Wednesday with Venezuela’s state shipping company."

SCO troops conduct second live-ammunition drill
A quote...."MATYBULAK RANGE, Kazakhstan, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The troops from five Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries launched their second live-ammunition drill on Sunday in the southern Kazakh training ground."

Violence and Impunity are Denounced in Honduras
A quote...."Tegucigalpa, Sep 23 (Prensa Latina) Juan Almendares Bonilla, social fighter, says that intolerance, impunity, massacres, acts of terror and human rights violations force the Honduran people to seek defense mechanisms." -- For more on this issue see....US support Death Sqds - Hideous Hillary's Happy Honduran Hit Squads
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Israel jails Arab activists for vague ‘contact with a foreign agent’
A quote...."NAZARETH // A vague security offence of “contact with a foreign agent” is being used by Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, to lock up Arab political activists in Israel without evidence that a crime has been committed, human rights lawyers alleged this week." - also posted at ConsortiumNews & DProgram & Uruknet

Israel Rules Out Signing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - Absolutely no surprise. - mpg
A quote...."Israeli officials today scorned a resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) calling on them to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), insisting it was unfair to single Israel out when they aren’t the only nation on the planet that has refused to sign it." - also posted at Uruknet
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

Palestinians and the 'Jewish state'
A quote...."If Palestinians recognised Israel as a Jewish state they would be effectively legitimising their own dispossession." - also posted at Creative-i

UN experts: Israel flotilla raid broke int'l law
A quote...."GENEVA — A report by three U.N.-appointed human rights experts Wednesday said that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killing nine activists earlier this year. -- The U.N. Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate."

Weekly protests continue across Palestine
A quote...."On Friday, 17 September 2010, the people of Bil’in were joined by Israelis and Internationals to protest against the theft of land and the imprisonment by Abdullah and Adeeb Abu Rahma, Ibrahim Burnat and other political prisoners from Bil’in. The demonstration went on for one and a half hours and was met with large amounts of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. After initially firing tear gas from the military base and road, soldiers came through the gate and chased the protesters back towards the village."

Intifada In Silwan
Yeah, the Israelis, after years of outrageous, murderous, cowardly-craven and spitefully-vicious behavior, have FINALLY succeeded in provoking some Palestinians to the point where they are contemplating another Intifada.  A word to the Palestinians....DON'T DO IT!!  It's what the Israelis are waiting for, it's what they've worked for, it's what they've planned for, it's what THEY want.  Supported by their sick, twisted, psychotic, drooling, mentally retarded and thoroughly AIPAC colonized "mommy" (the US-NRE) the Israelis will simply gun down every Palestinian in the streets like dogs with the greatest of sadistic glee.  The Israelis are heavily armed, massively insecure, amoral, thieving, cowardly bullies while the Palestinians who are fighting to keep their homes and property are almost completely unarmed  -- This state of affairs is a lethal combination by anyone's measure and will only end in tragedy.  The Palestinians should defend themselves of course, but in the meantime they should "arm up" as quickly and quietly as possible, get themselves some heavy military equipment, support BDS along with every legal measure they can employ to protect themselves and their land....and be patient.  Their day for justice will come sooner or later. - mpg -- A quote...."The streets of Silwan were on fire Wednesday morning, as residents of the East Jerusalem neighbourhood expressed their anger in light of the shooting death of a member of their community. Jillian Kestler-D’Amours reporting from Silwan."

Two Silwan residents shot dead by settlement guards
Related Article - A quote...."Very early this morning in Silwan Village, a patrol of private armed guards stopped near a group of unarmed Palestinian men who were on the Wadi Hilweh Street. According to eyewitness reports, the guards spoke provocatively to the Palestinians, and an argument took place between them. It was during the verbal argument that eyewitnesses say the settlement guards opened fire on the Palestinian men. The two injured were brought to Ein Kerem hospital. One of the Palestinians, Samer Sarhan, who is a father of five young children, was pronounced dead immediately upon arrival to the hospital. The second man is now confirmed as having died." - also posted at Uruknet

Settlers [Illegal Israeli Squatters] Open Fire at Funeral Procession, Police Cars Burning
Related Article - A quote...."Around 2 PM settlers were firing live ammunition from the settlements at the funeral procession of one of the martyrs killed this morning by the private settler security guards here in Silwan. As a result clashes have broken out between Palestinians and armed Israeli military forces,  empty Israeli buses have also been stoned. On the way to the cemetary an Israeli Police jeep was burnt, an Israeli Army jeep attacked and several Israeli cars destroyed."

Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Bedouin
A quote...."Israeli military and police razed the Bedouin village of al-Arakib in the Negev desert for a fourth time on August 17, leaving homeless more than 300 Palestinian Bedouin from the al-Turi tribe, the majority of them children." - also posted at Uruknet

Complaint lodged in case of 16-year-old girl used as a human shield
A quote...."[Ramallah, 22 September 2010] – On Monday, 20 September 2010, DCI-Palestine and Adalah lodged a complaint with the Israeli Military Advocate General (MAG) arising out of the use by Israeli soldiers of a child as a human shield." - also posted at AlethoNews

Human rights centre claims that Israeli prisons "are worse than Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib"
A quote...."A Palestinian human rights group has branded the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli prisons as "worse than Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib". According to the Prisoners' Studies Centre, Israeli soldiers have forced dozens of Palestinian prisoners to strip naked at gunpoint before being searched, despite complaints from the prisoners." - also posted at Uruknet
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Chris Whalen On The Upcoming "Worst Economic Contraction Since WWI (Forget WWII)"
Special Note - A quote...."The erosion of the profitability of the U.S. banking industry over the past two years under the glorious Summers-Geithner-Bernanke rescue scheme is the proverbial fly in the ointment for both major political parties. Democrats and republicans alike are going to be fed into the meat grinder over the next several years as the banking sector deals with literally hundreds of billions of dollars in direct and indirect expenses from the deflation of the mortgage bubble. For the economy, this slow process of muddle along championed by Summers and Geithner will ensure that Barack Obama becomes the Herbert Hoover of the Democratic Party."

The Economic Crisis is Worsening: Dollar Devaluation, Debt Default, Austerity and Growing Inflation
Special Note - A quote...."As quantitative easing again gets underway the failure of QE1 becomes more obvious. The crisis worsens and the illusion of any recovery is light years away. Over the past three years almost $13 trillion that we know about has been thrown down a rat hole to bail out banking, Wall Street, insurance and selected elitist entities. The dollar figure is probably much higher. We will never know, because the privately owned Federal Reserve makes its own rules. Everything they do is a state secret. The five successful quarters were only a mirage. The funds have been vaporized among lending and financial institutions worldwide. There has been no accounting and there never will be as long as the Fed is not audited and investigated. We are in an inflationary depression and have been since February 2009. Massive injections of liquidity do not work, nor have they worked for centuries under these conditions. You cannot resurrect an insolvent country in a system that is corrupt. The controllers of the US economy are about to lead the American economy and financial structure into a great dark pit. The US and the world is soon to face a global breakdown deliberately engineered by the forces of darkness." - also posted at DProgram

A “Hyper-Depressionary” State. Is it Really Coming?
A quote...."You see millions of websites devoted to the topic. These would mostly be the self-proclaimed “Gold bugs” who warn us that an impending hyperinflationary event, which would significantly boost prices of all precious metals and necessities such as food, would lead to chaos as the country’s savings would vanish literally over the course of a couple of weeks.  Riots would occur. Commodities would gain in value as Fiat currencies see their end game.  Overall it portrays a very ugly picture indeed (let me pull out that Mayan Calendar).  My definition of hyperinflation revolves around a deep and sharp loss of confidence in a currency. This is different than inflation where it is simply a function of too many dollars in the economic system; however, the line between high levels of inflation and hyperinflation is quite gray primarily dominated (in my view) by “future inflation expectations”. " - also posted at ZeroHedge

Guest Post: Here’s Why We Must Care About Shadow Banking
Special Note - A quote...."Readers are well aware, that when it comes to big picture economic topics, one of our favorite themes is the gradual disintegration of Shadow Banking (discussed previously in detail here and here). The main reason for this is that the shadow banking system, while materially larger than traditional bank liabilities ($17 vs $13 trillion), is collapsing at a whopping $4 trillion a year annualized rate. What this implies for credit money, and for the Fed's limited reaction arsenal is hopefully all too clear. Yet as we have a habit of jumping into slightly advanced topics, here is an informative introductory post written by Dave Friedman of Wall St. Cheat Sheet (the first of three) covering some of the fundamentals of this arguably most critical for the great deflation/hyperinflation debate topic." - also posted at BLN

Housing isn’t close to stabilizing - Commentary: Shadow inventory paints a more dismal outlook
Table - A quote...." MLS foreclosures — the tip of the iceberg -- The starting point in discussing the shadow inventory has to be homes actually on MLS listings around the country. With the plunge in home sales starting in July, the number of listings has risen substantially since the spring. For example, California listings are up 25% since April."

US Household Net Worth Plunges
A quote...."Since the beginning of the greatest depression, US household net worth has plunged nearly 11 trillion dollars.  All the while we continue to experience price inflation and expanded government spending." - also posted at ZeroHedge

The Top 10 Reasons For Surging Asset Correlations
Mrkt Tech Note - A quote....""Wax on, Wax off", "risk on, risk off", whatever you want to call it, the most prevalent phenomenon in capital markets over the bear market rally of the past year has been the gradual yet relentless rise in cross asset correlations. As we reported earlier, hedge funds are now openly returning capital due to their inability to properly hedge positions and execute on traditional long/short strategies, which in turn is wreaking havoc on the entire 130/30 or 130/70 model (which also means gross leverage for most rational hedge funds is reduced as those who do gross up, are effectively betting the farm on market moves with an increasingly shorter and more volatile even horizon). Long before this became a daily topic on CNBC, we were warning about the dire implications of alpha extinction, and the impact it would have on hedge funds. And with the opportunity to diversify away risk increasingly taken away from investors, we expect that this trend will result in ever more capital fleeing the stock market."

20th Consecutive Week Of Outflows
Mrkt Tech Note - Chart - Related Article - A quote...."Here are the facts: Beginning on May 5, there have been 20  consecutive outflows from domestic mutual equity funds. The average weekly outflow has been ($3.5) billion. Total outflows in this period are $70 billion. Total outflows YTD are $68 billion. The S&P on May 5, the day the series of outflows began, was 116.8. Today it closed at 113.5, a 2.8% decline despite almost $100 billion of runrated outflows. Furthermore, as we previously disclosed, YTD ETF flows through August into pure domestic equity-related strategies have been a negative $16.8 billion. In other words, the stock market is now virtually unchanged in 2010, even as almost $80 billion in equity-capital has been withdrawn."

Dollar hits five-month low against euro
A quote...."NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar hit a five-month low against the euro in early trading session on Wednesday as the Fed's statement on Tuesday still worried the market. -- The euro broke through a resistance level of 1.3350 against the dollar to a five-month high above 1.3400 in early Wednesday trading session, after the Fed said in a statement on Tuesday that it might carry out more monetary policies to shore up the fragile economy."

Germany Again Openly Opposes IMF, Says Will Not Extend European Bail Out Facility Beyond 2013
A quote...."With the euro surging, it was only a matter of time before the rickety house of European cards was put on full display once again. Sure enough, not 24 hours after the EURUSD hit a "German export industry suicidal" 1.34, here comes Germany's FinMin Schaeuble, who has said that if the IMF/EU hope to extend the duration of the European Bail Out Facility beyond 2013, they have another thing coming. As a reminder, Reuters reported a few days ago that "Greece's international lenders assured investors this week that they would not abandon Athens at the end of a 3-year bailout plan if it fulfilled tough reforms but failed to regain market trust."

European Central Bank presses Irish government for more social cuts
A quote...."The Irish government raised €1.5 billion on the sale of government bonds this week, completing its target of raising €20 billion this year. It was able to do so only by promising yet more austerity measures on top of successive cuts imposed since 2008."

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